Using SciPy within ArcGIS, agency scientists, engineers and GIS programmers will find it easier to develop geoprocessing tools that perform specific scientific and technical tasks, according to Esri.

Users that access SciPy script from within ArcGIS will no longer need to “start from scratch” to program solutions scientific and technical problems, Esri said.

SciPy is based on Python, a programming language and a collection of coding modules. SciPy extends Python by adding modules that perform functions useful to the scientific and engineering community, including math, 3D plotting and script testing.

For example, an atmospheric scientist may use an image filtering module to highlight the movement of water vapor, or an oceanographer might use the calculus module to study ocean dynamics.

The ArcGIS-SciPy integration will also ensure that apps and geoprocessing tools are sharable.

“One of the fundamental design goals of Esri’s framework is the ability to distribute your tools among the ArcGIS community of users,” said Kevin Butler, a product engineer with Esri’s geoprocessing and analysis team.

“If you develop a custom geoprocessing tool which depends on SciPy, you can share that tool as a geoprocessing package or a geoprocessing service and not have to worry whether the person you’re sharing with has the correct versions of SciPy loaded on their computer.”

SciPy will be integrated with ArcGIS through a staged release, Esri said. Initially, it will be available for ArcGIS as an optional install when ArcGIS 10.3 is released. Later, SciPy will be automatically installed in ArcGIS 10.3.1.